A Globalised Culture
Politics changed the arts first
- Political and social changes of the 20th century led to changes in the arts, and in the second half of the century, popular and consumer culture became more global.
- The CED's order is deliberate: political change first, then the arts, then a global popular culture.
- So culture is presented as responding to the century's upheavals, not floating free of them.
The CED's order in this subtopic is...
Culture is presented as responding to the century's upheavals.
Influence, not replacement
- Arts, entertainment and popular culture increasingly reflected the influence of a globalised society.
- The CED's examples travel in several directions: reggae, Bollywood, social media, the BBC, World Cup soccer and the Olympics.
- Note that the list is not one-directional — a globalised culture is one in which forms circulate, not one in which a single centre broadcasts.
Select all the cultural forms and events the CED names.
The Green Revolution is agricultural, in 9.1.
Consumer culture crossed borders
- Consumer culture became globalised and transcended national borders.
- The CED's examples: online commerce — Alibaba, eBay — and global brands — Toyota, Coca-Cola.
- Transcended national borders is precise: a brand does not need a state's permission to be recognised inside it.
Arts and entertainment, consumer culture, or the carrier?
Sort each item in the globalisation of culture.
A globalised culture means one centre broadcasting to everywhere else.
The CED's own examples run in several directions.
A globalised culture is one in which forms circulate, not one broadcast from a single centre. The CED's own examples run in several directions — reggae, Bollywood, the BBC, Alibaba — so an answer describing one-way cultural export has narrowed the list it is quoting.
Consumer culture became globalised and ____ national borders.
A brand does not need a state's permission to be recognised inside it.
How and why, not just what
- The objective is how and why globalisation changed culture over time.
- How: through the technologies of 9.1 — broadcasting, recording, satellite, the internet — and the corporations of 9.4.
- Why: because a form that can be reproduced cheaply travels wherever the network reaches, and audiences everywhere can pay for it.
Put the three-part shape of a culture answer in order.
That shape keeps a culture answer evidential rather than impressionistic.
Writing about culture historically
- Name a form, name the technology that carried it, and name what changed where it arrived.
- Reggae carried by recording and radio; Bollywood by film distribution and diaspora audiences; football by satellite broadcasting.
- That three-part shape keeps a culture answer evidential rather than impressionistic.
Reggae is recorded on one island, pressed onto discs, played on radio stations in a dozen countries, and reworked by musicians who have never been there. Nothing was exported by a state and no audience was compelled. The technology made the form portable, and the portability did the rest.
Political and social changes led to changes in the arts, and in the second half of the century popular and consumer culture became more global. Arts, entertainment and popular culture increasingly reflected the influence of a globalised society — reggae, Bollywood, social media, the BBC, the World Cup and Olympics. Consumer culture became globalised and transcended national borders — Alibaba, eBay, Toyota, Coca-Cola.